BEST SELLERS: October 2, 2005

Published: October 2, 2005

Weeks

This

Last

On

Week

Week

List

FICTION

1

2

131

THE DA VINCI CODE, by Dan Brown. (Doubleday, $24.95; special illustrated edition, $35.) A murder at the Louvre leads to a trail of clues found in the work of Leonardo and to the discovery of a secret society.

2

3

14

THE HISTORIAN, by Elizabeth Kostova. (Little, Brown, $25.95.) A young woman's quest to learn the truth about her father's life and her mother's death involves research into Vlad the Impaler and Dracula.

3

1

3

POLAR SHIFT, by Clive Cussler with Paul Kemprecos. (Putnam, $26.95.) Kurt Austin must contend with the leader of an antiglobalization group who possesses technology that has the potential to destroy all of humanity.

4

1

THUD!, by Terry Pratchett. (HarperCollins, $24.95.) As the anniversary of the battle of Koom Valley approaches, tensions between trolls and dwarfs mount. Part of the Discworld series.

5

4

4

POINT BLANK, by Catherine Coulter. (Putnam, $25.95.) Dillon Savich and Lacey Sherlock -- F.B.I. agents as well as husband and wife -- pursue a violent couple.

6

8

3

THE WIDOW OF THE SOUTH, by Robert Hicks. (Warner, $24.95.) After the Battle of Franklin in 1864, a Tennessee woman turns over her plantation to Confederate troops for use as a hospital -- and also as a cemetery.

7

1

ON BEAUTY, by Zadie Smith. (Penguin Press, $25.95.) Personal and cultural battles between two academic families.

8

7

5

CHILL FACTOR, by Sandra Brown. (Simon & Schuster, $25.95.) A successful magazine editor is trapped in her remote cabin with a man believed to be a serial killer.

LIPSTICK JUNGLE, by Candace Bushnell. (Hyperion, $24.95.) Three women struggle to balance their high-powered jobs and their messy home lives.

11

5

2

HIGH DRUID OF SHANNARA: Straken, by Terry Brooks. (Del Rey/Ballantine, $26.95.) Accompanied by a dwarf and an elven princess, Pen Ohmsford must save his aunt from exile; the final volume of a fantasy trilogy.

12

1

SHALIMAR THE CLOWN, by Salman Rushdie. (Random House, $25.95.) A former American ambassador to India is murdered by his Kashmiri Muslim driver.

13

10

4

WITHOUT MERCY, by Jack Higgins. (Putnam, $25.95.) An American intelligence agent and his British counterpart swear vengeance against an international terror ring that has killed one of their number.

14

11

10

LIFEGUARD, by James Patterson and Andrew Gross. (Little, Brown, $26.95.) Things go awry when a lifeguard at a Florida resort agrees to take part in a heist.

15

14

24

THE MERMAID CHAIR, by Sue Monk Kidd. (Viking, $24.95.) On Egret Island, off the coast of South Carolina, a married woman is strongly attracted to a monk.

Weeks

This

Last

On

Week

Week

List

NONFICTION

1

1

24

THE WORLD IS FLAT, by Thomas L. Friedman. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $27.50.) A columnist for The New York Times analyzes 21st-century economics and foreign policy and presents an overview of globalization trends.

2

2

17

1776, by David McCullough. (Simon & Schuster, $32.) An account of America's founding year by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author, focusing on the inexperienced George Washington and heroic citizen soldiers.

BLINK, by Malcolm Gladwell. (Little, Brown, $25.95.) The author of ''The Tipping Point'' explores the importance of hunch and instinct to the workings of the mind.

5

1

A MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY, by Kurt Vonnegut. (Seven Stories, $23.95.) Autobiographical essays and observations from the author of ''Slaughterhouse-Five.''

6

5

11

100 PEOPLE WHO ARE SCREWING UP AMERICA, by Bernard Goldberg. (HarperCollins, $25.95.) The author of ''Bias'' takes aim at ''Hollywood blowhards,'' ''America bashers,'' rappers and others.

7

6

8

NEW RULES, by Bill Maher. (Rodale, $24.95.) The comedian and host of ''Real Time With Bill Maher'' takes on everyone from President Bush to Bob Dylan.

8

7

7

THE FAIRTAX BOOK, by Neal Boortz and John Linder. (ReganBooks/HarperCollins, $24.95.) A radio talk show host and a United States congressman call for the abolishment of the federal income tax and the I.R.S.

9

8

2

BAIT AND SWITCH, by Barbara Ehrenreich. (Metropolitan/Holt, $24.) The author of ''Nickel and Dimed'' explores the world of white-collar job hunting.

10

13

2

THE TENDER BAR, by J. R. Moehringer. (Hyperion, $23.95.) A memoir of a fatherless boy for whom the regulars at a Long Island saloon become family.

11

1

WHERE GOD WAS BORN, by Bruce Feiler. (Morrow, $26.95.) The author of ''Walking the Bible'' travels 10,000 miles through the heart of the Middle East.

12

1

THE SHAME OF THE NATION, by Jonathan Kozol. (Crown, $25.) A look at the steady, insidious resegregation of America's schools.

13

11

12

CONFESSIONS OF A VIDEO VIXEN, by Karrine Steffans. (Amistad/HarperCollins, $24.95.) A tell-all by an actress who has appeared in many hip-hop videos.

14

9

27

ON BULL, by Harry G. Frankfurt. (Princeton University, $9.95.) A philosopher attempts a theoretical understanding of a ''vast and amorphous'' phenomenon.

15

10

2

THE GAME, by Neil Strauss. (ReganBooks/HarperCollins, $29.95.) Two years among pickup artists.

16*

1

MOTHER ANGELICA, by Raymond Arroyo. (Doubleday, $23.95.) A biography of the nun who founded the Eternal Word Television Network.

Rankings reflect sales, for the week ended Sept. 17, at almost 4,000 bookstores plus wholesalers serving 50,000 other retailers, statistically weighted to represent all such outlets nationwide. An asterisk (*) indicates that a book's sales are barely distinguishable from those of the book above. A dagger () indicates that some bookstores report receiving bulk orders. Expanded rankings are available at The New York Times on the Web: nytimes.com/books.